Yesterday turned into a bit of a day for medical appointments. I had an appointment booked in the morning to have my next testosterone injection, and discovered when they got there that I was due to have my testosterone levels checked as well, so they took bloods at the same time. It turned out later in the day that this was fortuitous timing.
In the afternoon I had a telephone appointment with the GP, following up on a eConsult request I’d made the day before. There are a few things bothering me, not necessarily related to my back directly, but potentially related to the medication. I haven’t spoken to this particular GP before, but she had obviously done a bit of checking up on my history. She made the point that, with “odd” conditions like mine, there is no harm in getting in touch if I think symptoms are changing, or even if I’m just a bit concerned about something. I admit I’m not the most proactive at making appointments with GPs – I would rather leave appointments free for people who have something wrong with them! 😜 Consequently, when I made the eConsult referral, I did have a bit of a list of things including night sweats (not just from the current heatwave we’re having), drooling at night and low mood. I’d re-read the notes associated with Pregabalin and duloxatin, and some of this could be related to those. I’ve had more noticeable nerve problems recently, mostly in the evenings, but I had it for the best part of 3 days solid last week. It started making me wonder if the side-effects might be outweighing the benefits. I’m not far off the maximum dose of Pregabalin (250mg twice daily, with the max being 300mg twice daily), and I know that when i went up to 300mg for a while, it seemed to mess with my memory, made feel somewhat confused and yet didn’t give any more relief than when I’d been on 250mg, so I went back to that level. I am now wondering how much worse my neuropathy would be if I reduce the dose, and does that help with anything else.
The GP questioned if the sweating might be a thyroid thing, so was going to try to intercept the blood request that had been placed in the morning, and add some other tests to it, so that we can hopefully get those back and discuss them later in the week. In terms of the pregabalin and duloxetine, she said they are not the sort of drugs that GPs do anything with, so is going to make an advice and guidance request to the pain team consultant to see what he thinks.
Physio
I also had a call back from Emma in the physio team about the correct use of the soft splint. Whilst I felt it had been helping since I got it, it didn’t feel as positive effect as I remembered from when Emma put one on me in the gym. I was also having problems with it slipping down, and consequently had been putting it on quite tightly and then getting discomfort after a little while. It turns out I was putting it on too high up in the first place, and it should sit pretty much on the ankle bone. The other things was that, whilst I had remembered to put the hook on the outside of my foot in the eyelet one lower that the one on the inside, I was actually putting them too high up. I had been reluctant to move them down because I presumed the extra length the elastic needs to stretch would have pulled the splint down even more. However, the actually outcome is that it is pulling at a less acute angle, and so is pulling away from the splint as much as it is pulling down on it, and also, as the hooks move away from the ankle and towards the toes, it has an easier job of doing its levering work. Yes, I know this is basic physics so I don’t need a tutorial thanks. 😉